Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all,
and around about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood
there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was
seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape
of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the
sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as
daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to
shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was
holy.
Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of
the Oglala Sioux
